There is nothing worse than to see a projected starting player at a position of relative weakness go down in the first days of camp. That could have been the case for Ohio State's projected starting defensive tackle Eddrick Houston. The true sophomore had to be helped off the field with a lower body injury suffered in the first day of Buckeyes camp on Thursday. Losing him would be so awful.
While Ohio State does a fantastic job of recruiting and developing its players, the interior of their defensive line is both youthful and inexperienced. Losing a promising player like Houston for any extended period of time could come back to haunt the Buckeyes during their quest to repeat as College Football Playoff National Champions. This team already lost so much to the NFL Draft.
After practice on Thursday, head coach Ryan Day provided a very brief update on Houston's injury.
“I haven’t talked to the trainers yet. We’ll go from there once we talk to them.”
Fortunately for Ohio State, ESPN's Pete Thamel provided more context to saying it is not that serious.
Sources: The lower body injury sustained in practice earlier today by Ohio State projected starting DT Eddrick Houston does not look like a long-term injury. The early results are that it’s not considered serious. pic.twitter.com/tq4j8xzy9d
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 31, 2025
While I do not expect to see Houston out there for any practice this weekend, at least he seems okay.
Ohio State gets a positive update on Eddrick Houston's fall camp injury
Although Cody Williams and I goofed around on our latest episode of False Start, we plan to hit the ground running with our conference preview episodes throughout August. One of the teams we are the most fascinated by in the Big Ten is Ohio State. While I think they have a great shot at pulling off their first national championship repeat of my lifetime, my FanSided.com colleague is down on them.
I have Ohio State in a group of three to five teams that will be playoff-viable, but are reloading to some extent. On the high end, I have them with the likes of Georgia and Texas as teams who can just win a national title anyway, despite losing so much talent to the NFL. If I wanted to expanded that out a bit, I have other teams like Notre Dame and Oregon as playoff locks, despite there being some questions.
What I am getting at is Ohio State was always going to be good enough to contend for the playoff, regardless of if crucial players like Houston missed time. That being said, major attrition to one position group can have ghastly consequences. It may prevent Ohio State from reclaiming the ultimate prize on college football as its own once again. These are the little things that do add up.
Ultimately, as long as the Buckeyes handle business in Big Ten play, they should cake walk into the playoff. The Big Ten is going to get three teams in for sure, maybe four if a team not named Ohio State, Oregon or Penn State emerges as worthy like Indiana did a year ago. What is important to know is Ohio State may still be dripping with talent, but so much of it is more inexperienced than expected.
Look for the Buckeyes to keep Houston on ice early in camp to prevent him from really getting hurt.